


The August Prompts

by thedovahcat



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Gen, Institute Railroad and Brotherhood make appearences, basically a huge cluster of STUFF, basically my OC/canon characters playthrough of FO4
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-29
Updated: 2017-09-26
Packaged: 2018-12-21 06:39:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 19,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11938449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedovahcat/pseuds/thedovahcat
Summary: Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.





	1. Day One- Girlfriend

**Author's Note:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

“So you’ve been around the block haven’t'cha?”

The mayor of Goodneighbor smirked and even laughed a bit at such a silly and obvious thing. “Cat, c'mon, it’s me we’re talkin’ here. You know better than that.”

Cat rolled her eyes and continued to hold her arms out to their full length, walking on top of a crumbling brick wall. Every now and then she wobbled, but she managed to keep her balance. “I do! So my question is, why?”

“Why what?”

“You know! Why go running around with all sorts of people? Is it fun?”

Hancock gave a sharp hmph at first, “Listen, when you’ve been around all sorts of people, you get the hankerin’ for some new tastes every now and again. And plenty of people wanna taste the mayor every so often too.” The smirk turned into a sharp-toothed grin as Cat pushed his shoulder.

“Yeah yeah, ‘course they do. You could star on the cover of a Junktown Jerky magazine if you wanted, if you ask me.”

“Which, I DIDN’T. If I recall. And I’m barely sober as it is.”

The girl shook her head and hopped back down onto the dirt as they continued to walk along the smashed road that looped around the northern side of Boston, just across the river.

“Why’re you askin’ anyway? You seem kinda young for that stuff, kitty.”

Cat sucked her teeth. “I was just curious was all.”

“You’ll have plenty of time to get into all sorts of trouble when you’re older.” Hancock stooped down into a squat and Cat instinctively jumped onto his back for a ride. “Even then, you’ll kinda learn who’s a jackass and who ain’t. You know, all that stuff.”

“Think you’d punch ‘em for me if they turned out to be a ROYAL jackass?”

“Heh, sister you don’t even KNOW. I’d deck 'em in the face so hard they’d wonder if one'a those Brotherhood Vertibirds decided to land right on 'em.”

They continued to walk for a while after. No wild animals came to nip at their heels surprisingly, but they took it for all it was worth. A little peace and quite was worth quite a lot.

“You’re a good kid. Don’t be so quick to just run into all that crap is all I’m sayin’, without thinking. Y'know, getting’ involved with people n’ offerin’ to be their girlfriend, boyfriend or whatever at the drop of somebody’s hat… Shit like that’ll make ya do all this stupid stuff you end up regretting later on. Or you get lucky. Either way, just some friendly advice.”

Hancock couldn’t see it, but Cat had an appreciative smile on her face, if anything. “Yeah. You’d know. Thanks I guess.”

“No problem, I guess.” The ghoul mimicked.

Above them the cloudy sky hung over the Commonwealth like a heavy raincloud. That’s exactly what it was.

“Hey let’s go back now, I don’t wanna be caught out in the middle of nowhere in the rain of all things. End up lookin’ like a drowned rat.”

Cat squinted as a big drop of rain fell on her face. “What is UP with you and water?”

Hancock set her down and began to walk faster as it started to sprinkle. “Look I just don’t like it ok? Let’s get goin’.”

They didn’t get very far before it began to pour, much to the mayor’s discontent.


	2. Day Two- Flag

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

Cat stuffed her hands into a cardboard box that was practically falling apart, pulling out all sorts of knick knacks and tossing them like nothing right after.

“Hey! What the hell are you doing?” Nick swept in behind her to catch whatever happened to fly his way. “Didn’t ask for any spring cleaning-” His hands were full, “Well…Ellie might’ve been but I sure know I wasn’t-”

The last thing she pulled out of the box was a folded up piece of cloth. “What’s this?”

“What’s what??”

The girl shook out the object while holding onto the ends and the image of a two-headed bear was what first caught her attention. “Hey, I aint’ ever seen any Yao-guai that looked like this. Where'dja get this?” She tilted her head to the side and read the faded words along the bottom portion. “New California Republic. Never heard of it.”

“We don’t get much talk about them out this far. They’re usually stationed out there in the western states, not so much our own little Commonwealth here.” Nick explained, returning everything to the dinged up box before packing it away elsewhere. “I forgot I still had this old thing,” He muttered as he returned, reaching out to take it.

Cat let him. “You ever go out that far?”

“Nah. But sometimes wanderers blow into town from that direction. Not very often but they either come to Diamond City or they head on over towards Bunker Hill to drink. I remember helping one'a them out, once. They gave me this as payment before they headed off towards who knows where.” His memory was fuzzy on what it was he did for them, but it must had been something or other.

“What’re they like?”

“Well, I guess the closest I could relate them to that you would know, would be those Minutemen out there. Just ordinary people wanting protection from all the dangerous things out there. So the NCR takes ‘em in and collects taxes and they get to live in one of their settlements or something.”

“Sounds kind of-”

“Militaristic? Well, the soldiers do run everything.”

Cat rolled her eyes. “Why give you a flag?”

Nick shrugged as he began to fold the piece up again into a square. “I don’t know. Maybe it was all they had on 'em. I don’t exactly hold people up to the fire when they promise to pay me for helpin’ them and then don’t exactly pay up in caps.”

Not a minute went by before Cat found something else to distract herself with. “Hey what’s this??”

The synth jerked as a few boxes went crashing to the floor, along with a shriek.


	3. Day Three- Applause

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

“You’re all talk, Silver Shroud. This city’ll be mine and there’s nothing you can do to stop me!” Cat waved a coat hanger around menacingly as Nick stood nearby, one brow raised higher than the other.

Kent was the only other one fully absorbed into the scene at hand, with said hands gripping the back of his beat up desk chair in suspense.

“I don’t know about that,” Nick said in a monotone voice, resisting the urge to just walk off the ‘stage’. He didn’t even like the Silver Shroud, but Kent was crazy about it, and Cat would indulge him from time to time. This was one of them.

“I’m gonna have to ask you once to put down the gun-”

“Or what?! Not even your coat will be able to save you from this!” The girl drew her arms back, holding the metal triangle like a tommy gun, making the noises for it and all. Nick cooly stepped out of the way. Cat gasped. “He’s vanished! But how?! Where are you Shroud, I’ll find you!” She stomped around loudly, looking around in a very exaggerated way before Nick ‘reappeared’ behind her, robotic hand positioned into that of a gun.

“Looks like you’ve finally met your match, uh…” What was he supposed to say after that?

“So it seems! But I’ve got one more trick up my sleeve! My ace in the hole- my-”

“Bang.”

“AH- Nick, you’re supposed to GIVE ME A SECOND HERE to react gee wiz-”

Kent stood up off his chair clapping his hands, “Oh no that was great! You two really are something! Oh- oh that was the most fun I’ve had in a while! If I could just get my hands on some of the other scripts I’ve heard were lying around I-” While the ghoul spun into a rant about props and scripts and all things Silver Shroud, Nick sighed.

Cat gave him a look and stuck out her tongue. The synth did the same.

“You should come over more often Cat- maybe help me read off some of the newer episodes we can find, if we find any! You’d be a great reader! And besides it’d be more fun with two people anyway! I’m sure everyone would love it and see just how great th-”

“RIGHT WELL first things first, gotta go looking for the scripts. Know where we could find them? Maybe I’ll go looking for ‘em myself-”

“Cat-” The detective said in a low warning tone.

“Uh- oh right I mean I’ll get Nick to look for them.”

“That’s not- well I mean-”

“RIGHT so that’s settled!”

Kent beamed at them. “You’d do that for me?? I can’t thank you enough! Ok listen, there’ll probably be some leftover material down at the old Hubris Comics book store located a lil’ ways southwest of here. Get me those scripts and whatever else you can find and we’ll go from there!”

Cat made a clicking sound and a hard wink that looked more like she was scrunching up her entire face. “Got it sweet-cheeks, ok Nick let’s get going!”

“Now???”

“Yes, NOW!”

Nick grumbled as they left Kent’s studio in the Memory Den. When they emerged back out into the street, he looked down at her. “You know I just came here on a favor, not because I wanted to get dragged into some field trip to a comic book store.”

“Nick, please. Who else is gonna take me there anyway, huh?”

The synth didn’t answer.

“Yeah that’s what I thought. How am I supposed to take an applause from an audience and then not give 'em anything for it?!”

“Ugh… Well let’s hurry on up then. The sun’s going down, and I don’t wanna get caught out there in the dark if I can help it…”

As they walked towards the front of the small town, Cat jumped ahead a few paces. “Why? Scared the Silver Shroud’s gonna getcha?”

“Not necessarily.”

“Or maybe a handsome, mysterious stranger will appear from the shadows to sweep you off your feet and WHISK you away into the night!-”

Again the detective sighed heavily, pushing open the rattling town gate and letting the girl out first before following closely after her.


	4. Day Four- Wind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

“WOAH- hey what a mean wind storm out there.” The rain drummed down on the bar’s aluminum roof. Not even the radio blasting loud could overcome all the noise.

“Watcha think? As dry as this place can be the storms can sure roll in from time to time,” Joe rolled his eyes as Cat returned to the front counter to sit down. “What’re you doin’ back here anyhow?”

“Lookin’ for Cap'n. You know.”

The man stuck his fingers into a glass and wiped the inside of it clean, giving her a skeptical look. “Listen, you’ve come here time and time again and gone just about anywhere there’s left to go around here…why don’t you just pack it up and go home?? Wherever that is? Surely you’ve got something to go back to. You’re too young for this.”

Cat reached out for a nearby empty alcohol bottle and looked into it, squinting. “Nope! Ain’t got nothing out there. Cept Cap! So I gotta find him.”

“Figured you’d say that… Well, stay outta trouble while you’re here, unless you’re going to order.”

“JOE, c'mon, please, you’ve known me for- …uhh…”

“All of maybe a year.”

“Yeah! You know me by now! When do I ever cause trouble??”

The barkeep shook his head and continued cleaning the glasses. “Just don’t want to have to save you from another angry attendee of the bar here.”

The girl waved him off and wandered into the small bar. It had expanded just a little more every time she’d come back here. Christmas lights hung from the ceilings and stretched all the way to the back, someone managed to fit a table in there and some more chairs and the walls were decorated with all sorts of things. Trophies and shelves with various things like knick knacks from gift shops or other little decorations that had managed to survive the war.

Cat sat down at the table and tossed her pack onto it to rifle through its contents. The only other person in here was someone in a dark coat, sitting in the opposite side of the establishment with a hat over his face. His arms were crossed as he sat on a stool, propped up against the weak wooden wall, feet resting on another stool in front of him like he was asleep in a recliner.

“Now let me seeee…” Cat’s finger traced along a very crude map, clearly made by herself. X’s covered all corners of the parchment. Bunker Hill had already been crossed out several times. “Wonder if he ever comes here at all… Maybe not lately…I mean, hah, I wouldn’t if MY gas-mask face were plastered on wanted posters everywhere.” She muttered to herself.

There wasn’t a single settlement all throughout the Commonwealth that hadn’t witnessed or heard of the Captain and his antics. They’d mention how he would raid raiders’ camps, how he would steal anything he could get his paws on, how he would supposedly fight hordes of ghouls on his own and how he’d done about a hundred other crazy things. One even claimed they saw him riding on the shoulder of a super mutant for pity’s sake.

Outside the wind and rain picked up again. Cat looked towards the outside briefly before returning to her map and scribbling on it quietly.

The storms definitely reminded her of home. But there would be no going back until the ghoul was located. He had to have come for a reason. If only he had said why.

The stranger in the corner got up slowly, quietly leaving the bar, the slap of a band coming around the back of his head barely noticeable amidst all the rain. The wind blew his coat around a little before he was finally able to leave.


	5. Day Five- Leisure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

The murky ocean water lapped up against the underside of the pier, churning around and battering the metal and wood before receding back into the sea again. Rotten planks creaked ominously and wind-battered signs from old shops lining the street swayed.

None of it was anything new.

The Captain paused to look out to the horizon. Dark storm clouds hung low and lit up with lightning in the distance, the rumbling coming only seconds after.

What did people used to do out and around a place like this? Walk along the boardwalk? Go sailing in big yachts? Go fishing off the side of the docks, or maybe shop at the little stores lined up neatly up and down the street?

He’d seen many magazined depicting scenes like that. Happy blue skies with white puffy clouds, a blue sparkling ocean and lots of people in their colorful clothes walking up and down the boardwalk and having a grand old time like they were at a carnival (which he’d also seen magazines of.) Behind his goggles he closed his eyes and tried to imagine what that could have looked like now that he was standing on one of those streets. What it could have sounded like.

People laughing, people talking… maybe there’d be music.

A low groan and a growl came from the inside of one of the broken down shops. The Captain didn’t move, far too lost in thought for that.

A feral ghoul shuffled out of the building towards him rapidly before slowing down, almost appearing confused. It sniffed the air with an open mouth for a second before scooting off and away from him, uninterested.

The Captain turned his head to watch it leave, one hand still at his side calmly and the other holding onto the strap of his mailman’s bag that went across his chest.

Maybe some of the ghouls living here had come back to this place, remembering how nice it used to be. That or they had got caught by the bomb just like many others had. It wasn’t like he could simply ask one of them.

Once the other ghoul was gone, he continued to walk at a fairly slow and calm pace, making sure to not accidentally step on any of the planks that were ready to give away into the water below.

Eventually, he moved closer to the inner streets, away from the water. As much as he wanted to waste time doing anything else, he knew he needed to travel west and continue his search.

The tall buildings of Boston loomed overhead, casting long shadows over the shattered streets. Every so often, the Captain would have to find a place to hide, lest he be seen by raiders or super mutants. The wild dogs roaming around were another problem entirely, and he certainly didn’t have any time for them.

None of them stopped him.

The only thing that did was the sound of mechanical limbs and harsh, heavy footsteps that belonged to no organic thing. Quickly the ghoul slipped behind a wall and waited quietly, his hand reaching down towards his belt for his machete. He did his best to slow his breathing down, but he could only do so much. He’d have to be completely silent.

“Subject one-hundred-eleven not located. Continuing search and moving to the next location as directed.” Announced a computerized voice to nobody in particular. A synth. There had to be more than one in the area. The Institute’s puppets weren’t known to travel alone. No, they too roamed in packs like wolves, or any other kind of vicious and social animal.

The Captain’s grip on his weapon tightened. They were looking for the same person he was looking for. He knew they would be. It was only a matter of time until they found him, meaning HIS time was swiftly running out.

Quietly he stooped down, listening as hard as he could and waiting for the sound of the footsteps to leave the area. Once they disappeared, only then did he dare start to move again, inch by inch.

His boots made no noise as he silently backed out of the alleyway like a ghost, opting to turn down another street and stay hidden away in the dark shadows of the buildings. It wouldn’t help him hide from the synths, he knew that… But it did make him feel more comfortable.

It took much longer than expected, but after an hour of moving very carefully, he made it out to the western river and began to cross, heading for the rolling hills and more suburban areas to the northwest.

The Captain kept his machete drawn at all times as he made his way. Unlike the magazines, a leisurely stroll through ANY part of the Commonwealth was not something he could exactly afford, though he did wish for it sometimes.


	6. Day Six- Profanity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

“WHADDYA MEAN YA DON’T KNOW WHERE THE FUCK SHE IS? YER A DAMNED- HOW COULD YOU OF ALL PEOPLE LOSE HER?!”

Nick held his good and metal hands up, “Get a grip-”

“GET A GRIP? You have any IDEA how DANGEROUS it is out there?! YOU KNOW ABOUT SHIT LIKE THIS, NICK!” Hancock hissed, marching right for the door.

The synth only watched him, cigarette drooping towards the corner of his mouth. “I only came this way to see if she’d thought to do the same. Like she said she would. See her anywhere today? Or hear anything?”

Hancock paused as his hand rested on the doorknob leading to the streets of his own town. “No. No I ain’t seen or hear anything. But fuck damn I’m gonna, cuz I’m gonna go LOOK for her.” He turned the knob and stepped out onto the wet pavement of the alleyway, looking up at the sky. The rain had stopped for a little while. For how long though…

He left the door wide open and marched on ahead towards the exit back out into Boston.

Nick closed the door behind them and went after him. “Look I know you’re a hothead when it comes to things like this but you better cool it or-”

“Or WHAT Nick. She was with YOU last.” The ghoul accused, turning around only briefly to address the issue before spinning back forward again and yanking the gate open roughly. “Thought you had sensors and shit,”

“Tch, I’m not one of those newer synths running around. And I’m certainly not as well-to-do as some of those other ones traveling in packs lately.”

None of it made Hancock feel any better. He cursed several more times as his foot landed on a wet tin can, causing him to slide down a small mound of debris. Already there were large drops of rainwater starting to fall. But he didn’t care.

“Where were you,” He asked, though it sounded more like a mutter.

Nick was able to pick up on it. “By the comic book store. We’d gone there on a favor, but after we were finished, she up and ran off. There’s a ladder up onto the roof from the top floor on the inside; at first I thought she climbed up there but when I didn’t see her, I went back down to make sure she wasn’t a smear on the street. But, didn’t find anything. So I thought she’d gone back to Goodneighbor.”

“Fuckin’ hell Cat.” Hancock grumbled as he randomly picked a route to take. “Well if she wasn’t there when you left, she’s probably not gonna be there now.”

“I doubt it. That’s feral ghoul territory. She’s not that stupid Hancock, as much as it seems otherwise.”

The mayor stopped and looked over his shoulder. “Oh, is that the only reason you’re being so cool with this? Cuz’ normally you’d be turning into a mother hen by now.”

The detective felt some of his internal parts whirr and creak. His face made a frown and those hard, yellow eyes drilled into the man in front of him. Rather than maintain eye contact, he reached into his pocket to pull out another cigarette, and his lighter.

“No point in losing your head over it when anything can happen out here. Something I gotta keep telling myself.”

The answer only made Hancock angrier. But he didn’t have time to start a big argument. “Well if that’s how yer gonna be about it I don’t need you. You can kindly fuck off someplace else while I do your job.”

“You’re not gonna get anywhere acting like that.” Nick called out as Hancock left him standing there on his own, clearly not wanting his help.

“Yeah well, I ain’t dead yet.” The mayor hissed again, boots practically kicking at puddles with every step he took. With his coat being soaked and now sticking to him, he looked a little thinner and less menacing than his usually-puffed-up self. But Nick knew appearances certainly wouldn’t stop him. If anything, they’d just play to his advantage if any raiders decided to cross paths with him. Not that his reputation didn’t do that for him already.

Nick puffed on his cigarette for a moment longer before tossing it onto the ground and heading off in a different direction all together.

“Gonna give everyone a damned heart attack like this…”


	7. Day Seven- Westbound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

The camera lenses in the crow’s eyes twirled and blinked. The image zoomed in closer on the Captain, who had a group of feral ghouls tearing after him across the grassy hills.

“Looks like he’s headed west…”

“According to the search teams at Vault 111, all signs of the subject have shown completely negative. He must have gotten out somehow- with someone’s help. There’s no way that somebody inside the cryo-chambers could override the lock and bypass the system. Someone had to have done it from the outside, manually.”

“We can worry about that later. Right now, the Director needs to be informed that we cannot locate the subject. I’ll be back.”

The black-coated scientist stepped through the automatic, white sliding doors and immediately made his way towards the stairwell leading to the second floor of the facility.

It was late, and rather than hearing the quiet shuffle of the residents of the Institutes, synths included, all the man could hear was a faint, low and peaceful humming noise. If only things could be as peaceful up on the surface as they were down here… that would be the day.

He meandered through a few clean hallways, the occasional synth greeting him with their standard ‘Good evening Doctor Ayo” as he passed by.

Eventually he stopped in front of one guard-synth, who remained quite still. “State your purpose. The Director is not taking visitors or appointments right now. Please see tomorrow’s schedule for a list of available times in which you may make said appoint-”

“J3-02 stand down immediately and let me through. This is important.”

Without any hesitation the guard let Doctor Ayo pass and knock on the door vigorously. Some moments passed before a light on the side glowed bright green, allowing entry.

“Director I apologize for coming so late in the evening- and without any notice,” He cleared his throat and stood with his hands at his sides as the white-haired Director appeared from around a corner in the apartment holding a mug.

“I take it it’s very important from what I heard outside. What is it Doctor Ayo?”

Ayo pursed his lips a little. “Yes uh… our search groups have encountered no sign of their target anywhere near Vault 111. They have however reported to us of abnormal activity that occurred inside the vault. Somebody opened the cryo-chambers, bypassed the system entirely. We’re looking into it now. Not many-”

“Not many people out on the surface know how to operate such technology nowadays, yes I’m aware…What else?”

The man shifted his weight slightly to the other leg. “Our Watchers have reported sightings of the subject in the… the dark coat and the hat. And the mailman’s bag.”

The Director scratched at his beard idly. “Who? Remind me again,”

“The ghoul sir,” Ayo answered. “The one who’s been destroying our coursers in Boston.”

“Ah yes,” He took a long sip and waved, “Continue,”

“He’s headed west towards the Vault for some reason. We could dispatch another team to-”

“Now, if he’s wiped out every group of synths and every courser we’ve sent to him, or that he’s run into by sheer accident or on purpose, then what’s the point of sending more to him just so he can destroy those as well?”

Ayo frowned. “Well sir it’s just that- what if-”

“Keep an eye on him, don’t do anything rash just yet. We don’t know where he’s going. He’s proven to be a bit of a wild card, that one.”

“Yes sir…”

“Was that all? Doctor?”

“Er- yes sir-”

“You may go.”

Doctor Ayo just barely held back a scowl, “Yes sir.” Once the Director was dead set on something, it was very hard to change his mind, even with higher logic and better reasoning. He was stubborn. How he came to be the Director of the Institute in the first place was beyond him. He didn’t like it, but there was nothing he could do about it. So out he went.

The Director sighed a long and heavy sigh once he was alone again, putting his mug down onto his desk as he sat down slowly. He reached for one of the drawers and opened it, pulling out an old pre-war model car and setting it gently onto the desk in front of him.

Who could have possibly opened the cryo-chambers inside of the Vault? Someone had to have known how to work Vault-Tec’s systems. Maybe a pre-war scientist under their employment, or maybe someone used the barbaric approach of smashing in the computer, allowing it to open the pods.

It was far too late in the night for guesses.

He extended his arm and gently placed his hand onto the toy, bringing it closer to himself and turning it over, picking at the wobbly wheels and opening the small metal hood in the front. The red paint was starting to fade. He was surprised it had stayed this bright at all for so long.

If anything, worry started to overtake him. A thing he found quite surprising.

“…Mm…I do wonder where you’ve gone… Hopefully somewhere safe. Provided you’re not dead.” The car went back into the desk drawer and instead, he pulled out a smaller, grey device with a set of buttons on the side. He clicked one of them and a bright blue hologram shot out of it, revealing a photograph of some sort.

A tall woman with light hair pulled back in a bun, a stern looking set of eyes but a proud look about her. Strong features that only emphasized just how no-nonsense she was. Next to her, a young boy with scruffy light blonde hair, grinning and happy with the a red model car in his hands. And beside him on the other side was a rather short, scrawny looking man with a perpetually nervous and tired demeanor, the same brand of unkempt blonde hair, a pair of square glasses on his thin face.

The longer he looked, the longer his heart ached for something that was no more.

With another long and defeated sigh, Neil pressed the button again, shutting the hologram off. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

Why couldn’t the synths find him? Why was the ghoul heading westbound?

Where was his father?


	8. Day Eight- Snow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

“Where did you say you came from again?”

“From uh… not from around here. Well it’s kind of around here but it’s a little bit of a ride away. That’s what I was gonna as YOU. You got a blue suit like those Vault dwellers. Just crawl outta one I take it?”

Liam frowned a little, looking down at the very-dirty Vault suit he was still wearing, with an even dirtier lab-coat from Vault-Tec slapped on top of it. The dust made it kind of reddish orange in some areas. “Not terribly long ago, yes.”

“I got him out of there.” A very tall and lanky ghoul was sitting nearby, with a nervous expression on his face, like he wanted to start biting his nails any moment. If he had any. The two were a ragged looking pair that occupied an abandoned shipping truck that had somehow landed on a pile of cars under one of the main highways.

When Cat first stumbled onto the sight, she too thought it was a good hiding place. Until she found out that somebody (or somebodies) had already lived in there.

“Nice place ya got here, real cozy-like. If this were bigger you could totally turn it into an inn or something!” She glanced up at the colorful Christmas lights strewn across the ‘ceiling’ of the inside. Everywhere she looked there were shelves and boxes filled with many pre-war relics, obviously collected from all over the place. In another corner was a bunsen burner and what looked to be other cooking supplies, there were the bed rolls and blankets where they were sitting now, with an old dusty radio resting nearby, playing music from the Diamond City station softly.

“So Liam,” Cat pointed towards the skinny blonde man with the crooked glasses. He definitely looked like the nerdy science type depicted in comic books and the like. “Annnd…” She turned towards the ghoul, forgetting his name. Nothing about him really stood out save for a white scarf with red stripes he had wrapped around his neck. What an odd accessory.

“Walker! Er- Walker… that’s me…hah…”

“Right, right. I was gonna call you Snowy cuz of your scarf there but Walker seems to fit you just fine I guess.”

“What were you doing out there wandering around? Isn’t it dangerous??” Just the fact they had seen the girl out there on her own was alarming enough. Then she told them she was traveling alone.

“Of course it is!” Cat leaned back against one of the pillows on the floor. Or laid back rather. “But me, either I have the best or the WORST luck around. Still kickin’ and runnin’ though. Besides, if I let anything trip me up or stop me for very long I’ll never finish what I came out here to do anyway.”

Walker shifted slightly in his seat, almost uncomfortably. Nervously. Perpetually anxious. “And what…what would that be?”

“Well,” She sat up again. “I’m looking for somebody!”

Just the fact she said it so plainly was a bit…well not unusual, but still. Liam couldn’t quite put his finger on it. So he put his finger on his the rim of his glasses instead to straighten them. “Somebody like? There are lots of people out here…apparently. Something I was unaware of until recently when we visited a trading post for the first time. Or- well, when I visited anyway. I’m surprised there are as many people still around at all…”

Cat smirked, “Yeah? Well I mean… what, did you expect a wasteland?”

“Kind of??”

“Hold on, you tellin’ me you’re from before the war?? How?”

Liam inhaled through his nose. “It’s… a long story…But to simplify the whole thing, I was stuck in a cryo-pod, until Walker came and did something to override the system. He got me out and…” They looked at each other again, shrugging. “That was that.”

“Woah, you were on ice? Just like in the comics?? Holy shit that’s neat! We got kinda a little ice theme goin’ here don’t we?! Ya got Snowy the ghoul right there, you were a frozen popsicle, the weather’s pretty cold where I’m from-”

“Something you STILL haven’t answered.”

“Huh? Oh- OH yeah- well-” The girl stuttered a little before derailing the conversation. “ANYWAY I should get going. Thanks for the water flavored coffee! I’ve got me a CAPTAIN TO FIND!” She stood up quickly and practically bolted for the exit.

“WAIT!-” Liam tried his best to go after her, but he was far too slow. “WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!” He called out.

“I DON’T KNOW!”

The two stood there, bewildered and confused more than anything else.

“…So her…name is Cat, she won’t tell us where she’s from or who she’s looking for.. and…I’ve a feeling she might get eaten by something. Do I have all that right?”

Walker swallowed the lump forming in his throat. His mouth felt dry. “…Seems like it. I’m worried… but there’s nothing we can do.”

With a sigh, the scientist put his hands on his hips as they watched Cat run off into the sunset.

“I have a feeling we’re going to be running into her, or at least hearing about her, again at some point or another…”


	9. Day Nine- Idiot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

The marsh buzzed with activity from nearby mutated frogs and bugs. All was still, peaceful even.

Save for the continuous screaming running right across and through the murky water and the reeds.

Cat jumped through the tall grass and scrambled on to the top of a car that had sunken into the mud over the years. She stood on the top and spun in a circle, looking all around. There wasn’t anything to be seen. Just more and more marsh. More mud, more grass, more fallen power lines and other sunken cars and the remnants of a few houses in the distance.

A bead of sweat practically ran down the side of her face before a sudden roar and a flash of pinkish red burst out of the mud from the side. She jumped and kept running as whatever it was crashed onto the vehicle, putting a large dent in it.

“Why’d I HAVE TO GO THIS WAY- OF ALL WAYS-”

Cutting through the southeastern marshes seemed like a good idea an hour ago in order to get to the beach, rather than walking all the way around it and wasting time THAT way. A few mirelurks crossed her path, sure, but she knew how to hide from them. They always moved on eventually if they couldn’t find any sort of threat nearby.

But this huge amphibious beast-whatever-it-was? Not quite something she’d encountered before.

A large shadow passed over her as the creature leapt a good ten feet across and landed heavily right in front of her. Cat let out a gasp as she nearly slipped due to being so startled.

The first thing she noticed were, of course, the big pinkish-red fins that covered the creature from the top of its head down to its tail. It had webbed fingers and toes that sported the same obnoxiously bright colors, though with curved, ugly nails like those, it didn’t matter of this oversized… frog? No… What WAS it? It had horrible teeth that jutted out of hits jaws and beady white eyes that were completely soulless, scaley green and blue skin that was almost iridescent. How she had managed to notice all of this in about two seconds was shocking, even to her.

If it was a mirelurk, she’d sure never seen THIS kind before.

The maybe-mirelurk crouched down and opened its maw, letting forth a rippling wave of, heat? Energy? Cat dove out of the way as it flew past, landing in the muck.

The car instantly crunched under the force and was ultimately blown away by whatever the mirelurk had just done, very much like a toy car being flung across the pavement.

“Oh god-”

A hiss came from the pink monster as it sprang towards her on all fours like a cat or a dog. Spit flew out of its mouth as it practically flew at her until a shot rang out in the humid air. Something pierced it’s thick shell and threw it off balance, enough for Cat to scramble back up and move farther away.

Someone else had shot at it. Was there another traveler out here?

“HEY! SOMEBODY! HELP!”

Another shot burst through the air and hit the mirelurk, turning its attention completely to whoever was coming. But it hardly had any time to react. The heavy shots of a shot gun and the subsequent fast reloading of one came again and again as it got closer.

The mirelurk roared angrily but before it could finish, one final blast to the head sprayed its brains out all over the earth. Cat yelped and held her arm up automatically. “Holy shit-” She turned her head and the first thing she saw was a coat of crimson, followed by squishy boot steps running in her direction. Before she knew it, a pair of arms scooped her up and swung her around in a big circle, and there was the familiar scent of cigarette smoke among other things. “HANCOCK!”

“Do you have ANY IDEA how long it took me to find you?” The ghoul sounded relieved more than anything, even more so as Cat gave him the biggest squeeze she could muster. He of course did the same.

“No. Surprised you did though. GLAD you did actually- What was that??” Cat looked over her shoulder back towards the corpse of the pink abomination.

“Mirelurk king. Knowing YOUR luck, it’s not a wonder YOU of all people ran inta one. I’m just glad I made it in time for the party.”

Cat wiped at her face a little, still covered in mud. “Looks like I got your fancy outfit all dirty here.”

“Forget about it, this ol’ coat’s seen worse. As for you, your lil’ swamp adventure with the swamp-thing here is over. C'mon, we’re goin’ back to town.”

“No objections from me.”

Just as they turned to start walking north back into the city, something poked its eyes out from the muck, staring right at them.

“How’d you even get OUT this far? Last I heard you were goin’ to the damned comic book store. This is like, in the complete opposite direction!”

“Well I didn’t HEAD HERE first, it was just a bit of a detour really, first I went across the river up towards-”

Cat didn’t even have time to finish a sentence before another high pitched screeching noise came from behind them. Another chitinous mirelurk sprung at them, leaving them hardly any time to react. Luckily, someone else had been watching them both.

The sound of a gun pierced the air, clearly not as violent as the mayor’s shotgun. A bullet flew out towards the lobster-like thing, finding a hole in its armor so to speak and immediately planting itself into its brain. The oversized crustacean toppled over dead.

“What the HELL-” Hancock’s eyes darted towards the source of the gun.

“NICK!” Cat screeched, waving at him.

The synth lowered his pistol, “You idiot. You shoulda waited for me.”

As the ghoul’s face screwed up in disbelief and maybe even annoyance, Cat ran past him and practically jumped onto the detective, nearly knocking him over.

“Are you ok?” Now his coat was filthy too.

“Yeah! Yeah I’m fine, Hancock came just now. There was this big, what was it, a mirelurk king? Chasin’ me out there.”

“Well, then I guess I came in the nick of time.” Nick snorted, looking up at the approaching ghoul. The two stared each other down, Hancock glaring more than staring rather. “You got somethin’ ta say? A thank you would be nice.”

The ghoul gritted his teeth, temper building up to something before ultimately fizzling out. He sighed and let his shoulders slump heavily. Cat looked between the two, raising an brow.

“Uh… somethin’ happen while I was gone?”

“Not really.” Nick’s metal hand dove into his pocket for a cigarette. Somehow that didn’t sound very convincing.

“Everything’s…fine.” Hancock muttered, turning away from them and walking on ahead, shotgun in his hands. “Let’s get outta here.”

Cat’s expression shifted from glad-to-see-them to somewhat-worried. “What’s up with him??”

“Hell if I know. But we looked all over for you. Where’d you go? Ain’t exactly polite of you to suddenly ditch me after I head out to help you with a favor.”

The girl sighed loudly. “Yeah yeah I know… sorry. So when I left the store I headed down the street over across the bridge and-”

As Cat recounted how she’d gotten out here in the first place, Hancock kept to himself the entire time, making sure to always stay a couple paces ahead of them. Nick couldn’t help but notice, but he said nothing about it.

There would be time for that later.


	10. Day Ten- Heating Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

The trio walked well into the evening. The sun had gone down below the horizon leaving them underneath a dark blue and starry sky, lit by the full moon, something they were all grateful for at the very least.

Hancock kicked a piece of brick off to the side as he kept walking. He’d remained ahead of the other two the entire time, but not so far that they would lose sight of him.

Cat remained in the back walking side by side with Nick, as to prevent the prior from running off and getting into trouble again. No one really spoke about anything in particular, as they collectively had nothing to say. A rare quiet night.

Nick stopped without any warning and turned his head, catching Cat’s attention immediately. “What is it?”

“Something’s coming.” He took one more drag from his cigarette before tossing it away.

The mayor kept walking, but only for several more paces. His fingers curled around his shotgun tightly as he too started to hear a loud metallic thump-thumping coming from somewhere nearby.

Cat stood still and listened. It almost sounded like someone was wearing something really bulky and clanky. Like metal armor or-

From around the corner a group of bulky individuals emerged. Lights shone around brightly from their shoulders as they thudded on closer, slowing down briefly to look at the three as they moved on past.

“Best stay out of the way ghoul.” One of the people in power armor said, voice distorted slightly by their microphone.

Hancock sneered, “You’re lucky you don’t know who I am.”

“What did you say, freak??”

“Nothin’. We don’t want any trouble, best we go our own ways.” Nick interrupted as he and Cat finally caught up to their companion.

“Looks like they’re roaming all over the place around here.” The man in the power armor grumbled, before finally moving along to rejoin with his fellow soldiers.

“Who are they??” Cat turned her head slowly to watch them continue walking down the street.

“Brotherhood of Steel. Not a friendly bunch. I’d been hearing and seein’ ‘em for myself lately. Don’t know what they’re doing out in a place like this though, or what they’re looking for, if anything.” Nick explained, lighting another cigarette.

“They’ll be findin’ trouble if they keep on like that. Just you watch.” Hancock growled, turning on his heels and moving along again.

Cat frowned. “Nick, go see what’s wrong.”

“What??” The synth glanced over at her before looking over to the mayor. “Why?”

“Just go see!”

“Fine, fine… When we get back to town.”

___________

Goodneighor proved to be a welcome sight. That and finally being able to relax was nice too.

Not that Hancock WAS relaxed really. He leaned against one of the walls of the Old State House and kept to himself for the most part.

Nick, with his glowing yellow eyes, stood at the darkened doorway, just staring at him. It didn’t take too long for the ghoul to notice either.

“What.” He said flatly.

“Got a moment?”

Hancock didn’t answer, instead, opting to turn his head to look away. Nick took it as a yes, and slowly came over, hands in his coat pockets.

“Better not have come to harass me some more.”

 

“Who says I was doin’ that? I was gonna offer we move past it now that it’s all over.” Despite neither of them specifying anything in particular, they knew exactly what this was about.

The ghoul inhaled slowly and exhaled, letting his shoulders sink. He stood up then, and paced around slowly, the floorboards creaking loudly under his boots as he stared off into space.

Nick could see he was exhausted. “Well? What do you say?”

“What am I supposed to say? I forgive you? Sorry??”

“Well whatever you want to say I suppose.”

The silence invaded once more, like a flood that could barely be kept at bay.

“Everything turned out all right at least.” The synth commented, sitting down on one of the sofas in the middle of the room and leaning back, hands resting on his knees.

“And what if it didn’t, huh?” Already Hancock could feel his temper heating up like a fire. It wanted to grow and grow, and spin wildly out of control.

“The point is, it didn’t. So there’s no reason in getting worked up over it now as much as you’re trying to.”

The ghoul felt his face grow hot with frustration. His ears burned, as did the rest of him. “I don’t know how you could sound so, like THAT about it, is what’s pissin’ me off. It’s like you’re putting on an act.”

Nick, with his hat casting a dark shadow just over his eyes, didn’t answer.

Hancock grunted, and continued to pace, as he had stopped only moments before without realizing it. “How am I supposed to know I can trust you?” He asked again.

“You don’t, I suppose. Nobody knows if they can trust anybody.”

“Don’t give me that bullshit.” The mayor darted for the back of the couch on which the detective sat, glaring at him and leaning forward with his hands clutching the wooden frame. “I don’t know what kinda game you’re playing at but I don’t fucking like it. So either you can cut the crap right now and tell me what the hell’s going on with you, or I might just walk you on outta here outta MY town.”

The synth blinked and gave him a side glance. “Almost sounded like a threat for a second there.” He shifted a little in his seat, looking down at his mechanical hand flexing shortly after.

“I knew you were gonna lose your head over it when I came to tell you about it.” He began to explain. “Figured one of us had to keep calm.”

Hancock screwed his face up. That couldn’t have been all there was to it. It just couldn’t.

At the same time, Nick had no reason to lie about it. If he didn’t care about something, he wouldn’t have stayed. He’d have left without a word to anybody.

“Sorry I didn’t act more, urgent, about it.”

The ghoul gave a hmph and moved away from the couch to go back to his piece of wall.

“What, not happy with that?”

“Forget it. Just, forget it.” Hancock answered in a low voice.

Nick held his gaze on him for a bit, until he got back onto his feet with a slight grunt. “Consider it done.” His hands went back into his pockets and he headed for the door. There was nothing more to do here. Time to go back to Diamond City.

“…Hey.”

He stopped in his tracks without turning around.

“…Thanks for coming anyway.”

The detective stood still for a couple seconds, eyes flitting to the side to look back even though he had his back completely turned to the mayor.

“Thanks for finding her at all.” His steps sounded through the building as he saw himself out.

Hancock remained in his place, arms crossed with a cigarette hastily shoved into his mouth, unlit. His fire had once again fizzled out for the night.


	11. Day Eleven- Booklet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

Liam reached high over his head and stood on the tips of his boots. Once his hands had a somewhat secure grip on the cardboard box, he pulled it down, nearly toppling over from the sudden weight in his arms. “Oof- here we are… Walker I might have found something- but if you want to keep looking go on. I’ll be here,”

The ghoul looked up and over one of the metal shelves that made up several rows of aisles throughout the tiny hardware store. “I’ll be there in a second!” He stooped back down again to pick through a few boxes of nuts and bolts.

Their usual scavenging mission had brought them into the suburbs of Cambridge, a place Liam had been very accustomed to, as he had lived there before the bombs fell.

Some of their appliances at home had broken, and so they had come out for parts. By chance they’d passed by what used to be the local hardware, and so far it had proven to be a hearty find.

“Let’s see here…” The man dug through the box, sneezing as a cloud of dust flew upwards and at his face. He waved the particles away and stuck his hands in, albeit carefully. While he doubted there were any spiders still alive…one could never be too careful.

Inside the box was a once-brand-new bunsen burner. He took it out carefully and placed it aside on the front counter, then reached back into the box and pulled out a small booklet. The manual for it.

“Ah- this was what I was hoping for.” Whenever they had chanced upon the instruction booklets for things they had, Liam always took them. After all, what if you needed to fix something? Finding brand new replacements for things wasn’t always the easiest of things to do.

Walker bumbled on over to him, his pockets jingling and clinking and clanking. “Found something? Oh is that new?? We can take that with us… Thank goodness… I was starting to dread having cold beans again.” He joked.

Liam let out a soft ‘hah’ at the comment and packed everything into the box again, sealing it (just not with tape…that stuff was far too precious.) “Not something I really want to go back to doing… What about you?”

“Well, there were some extra bolts I could use, and a roll of electrical tape and- and the weirdest thing I found was a box full of keys. I’ve got no idea what they’re for but they look neat. Maybe someone left them here?” The ghoul reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring of keys, jingling them around.

The scientist readjusted his glasses. “Oh, hm…well I don’t know what you could do with those… maybe you can uh… add them to your collection.”

“Maybe!” Walker always did like to collect all sorts of odds and ends. “We should go now. If we stay any longer, someone’ll notice us rifling around.”

“Alright,” They turned away from the counter and headed back to the street outside. Liam squinted as the sun hit his eyes. “It’s bright out here,” He muttered, blinking more than a few times.

“Yeah, maybe we could look for some sunglasses too.” The ghoul chuckled, grabbing his hand and pulling him along, without really needing to pull.

“What, then I would be wearing two pairs of glasses? That’s six entire pairs of eyes Walker I don’t need that many.”

“Oh? Well… just in case something happens to one of the pairs, you’d have…two more pairs at least?”

Their arms swung back and forth a little in tandem as they walked down the street, on the look out for any other good finds for the day. It was somewhat uncommon that they ever had any peaceful moments while out away from the car-pile they called home. Things were always out to get them, those things usually being wild, radioactive animals.

From the rooftops of the row of stores they passed, there came a bright glint of metal that hit Walker in the eye. He paused and shook his head, looking up towards one of the pipes sticking out of the roofs. Nothing was there. So he kept going.

The Captain sunk behind the edge of the building, holding his breath, arms spread out and pressed against the brick of the low rise wall that was there to prevent anybody from accidentally falling off.

Too close… But at least he’d finally found him.


	12. Day Twelve- Resurface

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

“I think we should call it here… that’s good enough for today.” Walker swung a duffel bag’s worth of all sorts of things over his shoulder.

Liam had his own pack full and he was starting to go beyond the level of tired. Exhausted was a word for it. Besides, the sun was setting. “I am glad we found a few extra cans of food,” They had run out this morning after consuming their final half a can of beans. “Er shall we then?”

The ghoul nodded and they both turned on their heels to start the long journey home.

Behind a brick wall, about twenty yards away, the Captain sat, waiting. Not for them, but for something else entirely. He’d seen the crows looking at all of them earlier in the afternoon. That was the sign.

It was only a matter of time now.

The scientist and his ghoul companion however, completely unaware of the birds at all, walked on without any concern. The sky was orange and it was nice and quiet, and there were no raiders around and about. With any luck they’d be able to get back home in one piece. That was the hope anyway.

“Subject located.”

Elsewhere, a pack of metallic feet moved quickly and nearly silently over the ground. Their eyes glowed bright yellow and their laser-based weapons and metallic-and-plastic armor clattered against themselves just a bit.

The Captain peered over the wall that was his hiding place. In the distance he could see white figures coming for them. He had to move.

He leapt over the crumbling piece and began to sprint in the direction of the vault-dweller and his friend.

Walker looked over his shoulder, very startled by the much smaller ghoul’s appearance. “W-WOAH- hey, who are you??” He spun around and stood in front of Liam instinctively. “What do you want? W-we don’t want any trouble- please just let us leave!”

The ghoul with the gas mask stared at them briefly before turning to look again at the approaching synths, pointing to them rapidly.

Walker’s brows furrowed a bit as he tore his eyes off of the newcomer and towards the hills. His breath hitched and he dropped everything and practically tossed Liam over his shoulder like a sack of flour.

“WHAT’S GOING ON-” Liam barely had any time to realize what was going on. It was a bumpy ride, and while he had to hold onto his glasses a majority of the time to keep from dropping them, he did spot the figures running at them. And the subsequent blue lasers soaring past and over their heads as well.

The Captain ran behind them for part of the way, until he had finally decided he’d had enough. He slowed to a stop, reached for the machete at his belt and whirled around to run directly at the enemy synths.

“WHAT’S HE DOING?” Liam hardly heard his own voice but he had shrieked that bit out. Walker stumbled in response and almost tripped, but he didn’t stop to look back.

If they looked back now, they’d be caught.

One of the synths raised its arms to fire, only to have the Captain come down on it, smashing his rusty blade onto the limbs of the robot. Its forearms severed from its body and it backed up before its head followed suit, flying off and landing onto the grassy hill. The next synth met a similar fate, drawing enough attention that the other synths stopped to repel the Captain away from their group.

The ghoul moved surprisingly quickly. From one synth to the next, he jumped in between them, swung under their blows and shots with such momentum that if he had stopped now, he’d be an easy target.

The group slowly became increasingly dismembered as the fight went on, leaving only two our of the initial ten left.

One fired a quick series of shots, only to be yanked back and stuck through the chest, and then kicked hard in the lower back, breaking its spine. It’s eyes sputtered and stopped glowing as it deactivated upon hitting the ground.

The last synth backed up slowly, keeping its laser-rifle trained on the Captain. Neither of them moved, until the synth did. But it was too late. The machete flew through the air and hit it square in the face, forcefully turning its neck before being tackled to the ground, the blade ramming through its neck and circuitry one final time.

That was the last of them.

A long moment passed. The Captain stood up slowly, dusting himself off and looking around. Liam and Walker were nowhere to be found. Good… Though, that meant he had to try to find them again.

He secured his over-sized knife onto his belt again and began to retrace his steps back into the direction they had gone.

One of the downed synths flickered and sputtered back to life, barely able to raise its head. It’s upper body was still in one piece, and its arm tried to move and aim at the ghoul captain walking away. It pulled the trigger and a bright blue beam shot out of its weapon.

The Captain’s boot had landed on a rock and down he slid into a hole by accident, the shot missing him entirely. In fact, he hardly noticed it had happened at all. Regardless, he got back up, climbed out, and kept on walking.

The synth twitched a few times before dying.

__________

“You’re telling me he took them ALL OUT?? That’s IMPOSSIBLE-”

“Look at the transmission footage. It was HIM. You have EYES.”

The scientists argued with one another as Neil stared at the screens in front of him. He could hardly believe that one man took on ten of their synths without any problem whatsoever. He wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or not quite frankly.

“Director?”

“Hm?”

“Your opinion on the matter?”

He sat in his chair without any answer.

“Send a courser. We know where he is now. It won’t be difficult to bring him back here.”

“Yes sir, of course.”

For a long time the Institute had been the ‘boogeymen’ of the Commonwealth. Neil knew that much. Within the last few years, they’d gone relatively quiet until recently with the resurfacing of the old second-generation synths into the new third generation.

His fingers interlocked as he let his elbows rest on the desk in front of him, deep in thought.

“It would be nice to be above ground, one day.” He muttered to himself.


	13. Day Thirteen- Lunch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

“Two bowls Takahashi, quick! I’m starvin’!”

“Nan-ni shimasu-ka?”

“Yeah yeah whatever uhhh lemme seeeee… well I guess you only do serve one kind of noodle anyway don'tcha?” Cat leaned on an elbow, looking right at the protectron behind the counter.

The robot buzzed and whirled as it slowly rotated in order to serve the food, chef’s hat slipping off and falling onto the floor.

“Hah… you know I wonder if anybody’s ever tried reprogramming him to you know, cook some other things.”

“Well, the way I figure, that’d be pretty rude doin’ that to someone without their permission.” Nick sucked away on a cigarette as Cat spun around on her barstool.

“I guess.” She rolled her eyes as Takashi chopped away at whatever ingredients were even back there.

“Nan-ni shimasu-ka?”

“So, did you and ol’ raisin ever solve whatever it was that was ailin’ ya? Looked like you two had gotten into a fight again, or so I figured by how quiet you two were when we left this morning.”

The synth sighed loudly as he put out his cigarette on a very dirty ashtray that rested on the counter. “Yeah, everything’s fine. Just got worried when you ran off was all. Can you blame him?”

“Blame him AND you? No I guess not.” She smiled and held her nose up, high and mighty, perhaps secretly thrilled by that fact alone. She came down from her cloud relatively quickly though. “Really though if either of you hadn’t shown up I’d probably have been stuffed into a can like potted meat by now. Those mirelurks and other crusty things out there, they’re out for revenge!”

Nick chuckled. “That so? Well you would know. Since you’re so well traveled.”

“Nan-ni shimasu-ka?”

Cat turned to spot two bowls of noodles steaming hot and sitting on the counter in front of her. “Awsome! Thanks!”

“Nan-ni shimasu-ka?”

“Payment? Nick’s got it. Put it on his bill.”

The detective blinked, shaking his head a little. “Gee thanks.” He grumbled as he dug into his pockets, dropping some caps in front of the robot. “Next time SHE’S paying.”

“Nan-ni shimasu-ka?” Takahashi’s robotic hand came forward, rotated, and pulled the caps into an open box resting just below the edge of the counter. They dropped in with many little clanks.

Cat beamed as she bobbed from side to side, chowing down on her food. The first bowl got demolished, and then she started on the second.

As she ate, Nick glanced around at the activity that was Diamond City. Traders bumbled around, drifters…drifted in, the regular citizens went about their daily business shopping or selling or doing whatever else there was to do around here. All in all it was a fairly normal afternoon. Nothing out of the ordinary. That he could see from here anyway.

He shrugged to no one in particular and spun his chair around so he was facing the inside of the Power Noodles stand. “…DO you have any other flavors of soup?”

“Nan-ni shimasu-ka?”

Above them on a wire draped over the main entrance to the city, a flock of crows sat, preening their feathers or honking obnoxiously.

A few of them maintained their gaze on the people below though, eyes focusing and zooming in. One of them hopped off and flew in a little closer, finding a nearby roof to perch on.

It’s beady black eye locked onto the synth, and the girl. And they, and everyone else, were none the wiser.


	14. Day Fourteen- Anomaly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

Walker poked his head out from behind the small blockade he and Liam had managed to make inside of their car-pile home.

“See anything?” Liam whispered.

“No…”

No synths had come after them for several days now. And no animals had come near either, which wasn’t too out of the norm, but they were used to their home being somewhat of highway for all kinds of traffic.

The scientist sighed softly and remained seated against the far wall. Walker peered over at him and then crawled on over to sit beside him.

“Well…we’ll just have to wait a while longer and then we can go out again… They’re not going to find us in here,” He muttered, not very confident about that much. When they had returned home, the ghoul hadn’t seen any synths following them. And that shorter ghoul with the captain’s hat had disappeared too. Maybe he led them away someplace else? He could always hope so (and hope that he wasn’t killed because of it.)

Liam frowned a little and pulled off his glasses to rub at his eyes. “We’re running out of food.”

“I know…” Their time inside the big truck was limited. They could hold out for another day or two at the most before they would need to go out and start scavenging again. Even then, that was cutting it really close.

They both sat in silence for the next hour, barely moving, barely breathing. Stomachs began to rumble.

“…M-Maybe we could…go now,” Walker suggested, thinking better of the situation. It wouldn’t be very wise to sit there until they were COMPLETELY out of food. “The sun’s still out. We’ve got the daylight to see, and…you know, since they’re bright white, it’ll…it’ll be easy to spot them.” His reassurances were more for himself than anything.

The vault-dweller glanced over at his companion, clearly concerned. Walker was right though. It was either starve inside or get out there and get possibly shot by a laser rifle while looking for food. “We’ll go quickly then. What I want to know is why they were shooting at us to begin with. I don’t think you or I have anything that they could want, do we?”

They removed objects away from the exit and crawled back outside, carefully planting their feet on the dusty ground, eyes wide and on the lookout.

Everything seemed all right for now…

“See anything”

Walker held a hand up over his eyes and squinted. “…No, I don’t hear anything either… I don’t think anyone’s around. Let’s go in the opposite direction this time…” Away from where they had encountered the Captain and the synths.

They made their way down the hill, taking care not to trip and roll all the way to the bottom. Liam stuck close beside Walker the entire time, gripping his arm tightly.

Past the cracked road, past a small lake, past a couple of blown away houses that were merely frames now… They walked past all those things. The most that they encountered were maybe a couple bloatflies here and there, but nothing insanely dangerous.

The sun shimmered through the cloud-patched sky. Liam looked away as he briefly looked directly into the light. …No, he’s sure he didn’t look at the sun. He blinked a few times, seeing bright blue before it began to fade. “Did a bomb go off??”

The two stopped. Walker turned his head, gazing at the horizon. “…Huh, I…I thought I DID see something but, I don’t hear anything. We would have heard something by now. Lightning maybe?”

“There’s usually thunder associated with lightning. And while it may be a little cloudy it’s not the stormy kind,” The scientist stared up at the sky. Not a storm in sight.

A minute or so went by without any further activity. Walker began to move cautiously again. “Well whatever it was…” He didn’t want to stick around to find out what anomaly was causing what anomaly.

“Ball-lightning is usually like that. Bright and flashy. I remember seeing it only one time myself. It was quite…something.” Liam mentioned as they continued down the path, trying to make light of the situation.

“Ball-lightning? What’s that look like?”

“Well, it’s when-”

A pair of eyes fell on the two from one of the old billboards. If they had only looked up, they would have spotted somebody in dark, ribbed clothing standing there, watching them.

But they didn’t.


	15. Day Fifteen & Sixteen- Nuisance and Space

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

“Better watch your step. Knowin’ you, one wrong move and you’ll go launching into space for all I know.” Nick took another drag from his cigarette, his hands in his pockets like usual as Cat walked on ahead, balancing on a brick wall.

“Oh please, not like this wall’s gonna explode.”

“If it was we wouldn’t be here. Just don’t go fallin’ into the drink there.”

“I WON’T, geez!” Cat spun around on her heels without managing to fall over at all. “Kent was real happy about those scripts at least! He’s the one who got launched over the moon when I gave it to him.”

The synth stepped over a chunk of brick. “Somehow I had almost managed to forget about that whole thing. Since you’d run off and all.”

The girl wobbled but kept moving. “Hey, it was for a good cause.” When she reached the end, she jumped off and landed a little hard. “Yeowch, the knees.”

“Careful. And good cause? Huh… maybe I need to reevaluate just what that means to begin with.

Cat snickered and walked on, arms in the air to stretch. "Well in that case you could always-”

A blue laser blast flew in between them, just barely missing them. Cat screeched and ran on ahead while Nick pulled his pistol from his coat. Just as he had the weapon out on the open though, another shot came at him. His upper half luckily moved out of the way in time, but his hand did not.

Cat poked her head out as he mad a dash to hide behind a nearby car, sliding out of range and almost ramming her down in the process. “HEY HEY- Are you ok?- AH YOUR HAND!”

The detective held his robotic hand up. It was practically melted and completely useless now. “Lovely. Let’s hope I’m a decent shot with the other-” He pat around his coat but found nothing except his lighter. “DAMN IT- where did?” He looked back.

His pistol was on the ground, thankfully all in one piece.

“Great-” He exclaimed sarcastically. “I haven’t seen those synth bastards in the city so far. Wonder what the hell they could be after. Super mutants? Dogs??”

“THEY WANT SUPER MUTANT DOGS?”

“No. I doubt it. We need to get outta here and get back to Diamond City though.” The firing had stopped. “…We’ll have to move quickly though… who knows where the hell they-”

Nick began to move out of cover, but as soon as he did, a hand crunched around his neck with an inhuman amount of strength and lifted him clear off the ground. Cat yelped scooted herself away in a panic.

“You are in my way.” It was… a tall woman. She wore a dark ribbed coat and had her dark hair pinned back. And while she looked perfectly human, she had that steely inhuman gaze that only a machine could possibly have. Then again, lifting someone like Nick up singlehandedly only added to that image.

Without any warning her arm swung and the detective flew across the street and into another car, hard enough to dent it.“

"Subject "Nuisance” has been located, prepare to be eliminated.“ The enemy synth looked back down towards- nobody was there.

"It appears the subject is attempting to flee.”

“Don’t kill her. Just bring her here so she’s out of the way.”

The synth darted into action down a street, picking only the most logical routes to take.

Cat stood in an alleyway out of breath and constantly looking back. There was no sign of that lady. Maybe she’d finally gone away.

Behind her a loud metal THUD practically shook the ground under her feet, giving way more than what was necessary for a warning.

“Do not try to run.”

“HEY- HEY BUZZ OFF-”

Back in the main street Nick yanked his arm out of the metal of the car he’d landed on, said limb flying forward just hard enough to dislodge his upper half from the body of the vehicle. “CAT?” He called out as he freed his legs afterwards.

Nobody answered. Save for an angry yell and the sounds of some pipsqueak struggling in high pitched grunts and GRRRAHHHHHs.

His legs came free and he fell flat on his face. But just as he was able to push himself off the pavement there was an electrical sound in the air, like energy arcing and sounding really close by. A blue surge of light very similar to a lightning bolt lit the place

Up for only a second. Then all was still.

Nick stood there, unsure of what had just occurred. Whatever it was, it couldn’t have been good though.

“CATRENE!” He called out again, hoping for some kind of answer. Quickly he rounded the corner towards the direction they had gone, but upon ending up in the alleyway, he found nothing. Saw no one, heard no one. The place was empty.

Thoughts rushed into his head. Flashes of memories and feelings that weren’t his. They weren’t the same, but the jolts of panic were almost alike.

“…Th…The Institute,” He said to himself, almost like he was out of breath. It had to have been them. There’d be no other reason to just pluck someone off the street like that.

The synth shook his head and looked around just one more time. He didn’t find anything.

Hancock would wring his neck if he came back without the girl, again.

Hesitantly he held up his melted metallic hand. He wouldn’t be able to go after anybody like this.

And so, swallowing what pride he had left, the synth made tracks back to Goodneighbor as fast as he could.


	16. Day Seventeen- Birthday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

“That’s the last'of'em I think. How’d they get in here without anybody noticin’ anyway?” One of the town guards nudged the synth’s broke body with a foot while another tossed a corpse onto the pile made in the center of Goodneighbor, right under the mayor’s balcony.

“I dunno but what if there are more of those freaks hidden among us?”

“Don’t start with that shit Charlie-”

Hancock scowled at he stared at the small mountain of synths they’d manage to kill. A few of their own were shot in the crossfire, and the town looked a bit more dinged up than usual… but other than that, they were all alive.

“Enough.” He growled, hopping up onto a nearby bench to rally whoever was left. “If th’ Institute’s plan is to go makin’ us afraid then we’ll SHOW THEM we AIN’T AFRAID!”

Although shaken, the others nodded in agreement and raised their weapons with a cheer.

“WE’LL SHOW THOSE BASTARDS NOT TO FUCK WITH GOODNEIGHBOR!”

“YEAH!”

“AND IF THEY COME?” Hancock lowered his gun to reload it. “THEN LET ‘EM COME! OF THE PEOPLE-

”-FOR THE PEOPLE!“ The energy exploded amongst the townsfolk and immediately they got back to work, repairing their defenses or tending to the wounded. Whichever came first.

Nick hurried down one of the streets into the main plaza of the town, pausing only momentarily when he saw the ghoul stepping back down onto the ground. "Hancock-”

The mayor turned his head. “What’re you doin’ here? You’re kinda late.”

“What happened here? Did those machines come here too??” For some odd reason, the detective was emulating being out of breath.

“Just popped up outta their little holes like a buncha molerats. All of a sudden the whole place is on fire.” Hancock explained. “Not…really on fire… what’re you doing here though?” He asked again.

Nick bit his lip just slightly. He had to tell him.

“Cat n’ I were by the river and one of those synths attacked us. But they didn’t look like these. It was one of the newer ones. Threw me into a damn car and just up and carried her off somewhere-”

As he explained, the ghoul’s expression started out wide eyed. His eyes became progressively half-lidded until he had a rather deadpan look all together.

“Oh happy fuckin’ birthday ta me…” He growled, marching directly for the exit into Boston.

“Hancock-” The detective called out to him in a warning tone, but he knew there was no stopping that man now.

Still, he couldn’t let him go alone. So he dashed after him and back out into the streets of Boston.


	17. Day Eighteen, Nineteen, & Twenty- Morning, Emergency, Ring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

The sun poked through the clouds. Another, uncommon gray morning. Usually the place was roasting by this time.

Walker didn’t care what the weather was like today. Not even rain or that snow stuff they talk about in magazines could stop him at this point.

As he jogged over hills going closer towards the city, his head played out everything that had happened thus far.

He and Liam had been walking along, trying to find another place to stay in temporarily until the synth activity had died down. It was just them, scooting along the empty dusty roads, when out of nowhere, some strange blonde man who looked quite normal (save for his dark-robe-like appearance) approached them.

“I’ve located the subject. You’ll have to come with me now. As for you, ghoul. You’d do best to stand down.” He’d said without pointing any guns or weapons at them.

Walker had instinctively gotten in front of Liam then, “Go AWAY- we don’t want any trouble,” It was a weak warning. All he had had to defend the vault dweller with was his gnawed-up stick he’d used as a staff on various occasions.

And then without warning, the man’s wrath descended down upon them both. He’d beaten the ghoul to a pulp rather easily, and quickly, using Walker’s height and lankiness to his advantage. And Liam? He was too frightened to do anything. Not that Walker could blame him for freezing up.

The strange man took him and as soon as the ghoul had been able to get back onto his feet again, a bright flash blinded him terribly (thank goodness only MOMENTARILY,) and they were gone.

His head had been in panic-mode ever since.

Walker slowed down to take a breath or two. He couldn’t keep this pace up all day long, but he had to. How else would he find Liam? The Institute had to have been the ones responsible for it; there was no other explanation to be had.

Slowly he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small gold ring. Liam had dropped it during the scuffle. It was lucky that the ghoul had noticed it at all. The scientist was probably missing it terribly, provided he even knew he’d lost it. With a sigh he returned it to his pocket. He’d get it back to him.

The city surrounded him as soon as he crossed the river, and as he continued down the shattered streets and deeper and deeper into Boston, he remembered something else.

Things the traders and the people in the settlements would always talk about, at least recently.

“The Railroad?”

“Yeah, I dunno, nobody knows where they are. What I’ve heard though? They say, “follow the freedom-trail.” What’s that supposed to mean amiright?”

The freedom-trail…

Walker wasn’t very familiar with downtown Boston in particular, but if anything, there were plenty of places to hide in the ruins, and the dogs and super mutants and raiders and gunners and-

He shook his head. No time to panic. This was an emergency. Is the Railroad was up against the Institute, then he had to find him. Maybe they could help him find the scientist.

Or so he hoped.


	18. Day Twenty-One- Sensitive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

The first thing Cat saw was a whole lot of white. “FUCK me- what the hell is this-” Her head throbbed and just as she sit up, someone else fell right on her with a screech.

“OH- oh goodness- wait- it’s you! What are you doing here?!” Liam scrambled off of the girl and scooted away.

Cat groaned and just laid there, defeated.

Liam adjusted his glasses and looked around. The floor under them was white, but the walls were grey and clean…everything was so pristine and shiny. Where were they?? Slowly he got up and pulled Cat along with him, as much as she wobbled back and forth.

“What is this?”

“I don’t know… but- but whatever- WHEREever this is we need to get out of here immediately-”

“You wouldn’t go running off so soon would you?” A voice said from some hidden intercom. The two froze. “There’s no need for that now, come in please.” Ahead of them a door hissed and slid open quickly.

The two looked at each other, before Cat moved in front and went on ahead, fists at her sides, while Liam practically crept after her with about as much bravery as a mouse. He clumsily patted around for his emergency gun but found that it wasn’t there. “I must have dropped my… weapon…”

“No use for it now, can you punch?”

“Why would I ever punch anybody?”

“In case ya NEED TO SHORTY.” Cat hissed. They were the same height.

The scientist grumbled, “I don’t need to! …Who was that?”

They continued down a short hallway, through another security door with a synth blocking the way in. The white metallic menace stared blankly at them.

Cat tried her best to poof up some, but it had no effect.

“Better move it metal-head or things are gonna get UGLY-”

“The Director has granted you permission to access the Institute. Please follow all rules and regulations and proceed to the second floor. If you do not comply, there will be consequences.”

“Th-THE INSTITUTE?” Liam stammered, “OH no no- you mean that dreadful place that makes up these-these-”

“Robots? No shit. Looks like we’re on the inside,” Cat muttered as the synth moved aside to escort them to their supposed destination.

Once the doors opened for them, they were greeted with a massive, round room. Trees dotted the gardens within it, an odd thing to see when the world above was dried up and dead. Soft blue light bathed the clean walkways, windows to other hallways lined the walls going all the way up quite a ways. And in the center was a column of light? Cat squinted at it, unsure. “Is that an…elevator?”

“That column with the helix design? I…I don’t know… this.. this place,” If Liam could see he’d have been pulling off his glasses to get a better look at the place. “This is … amazing…” Was it any wonder they could create the synths? What else did this place have?

“Please follow me.” Their synth-escourt stated loudly, waiting for them.

Cat made a face and reached for Liam’s arm, yanking him along.

As they walked, some of the other scientists and residents stopped to watch them, quite baffled to see two outsiders here. No one did anything or pointed any guns at them though. They only stared.

Once they had climbed to the designated floor, the synth stood at attention by a door. “Please proceed inside. I have informed the Director of your arrival.”

Liam gulped and looked at Cat, who only frowned in response.

“…Should… should we?”

“Now or never four-eyes. If we die we die.”

She took a step forward, almost recoiling as the door slid open.

It looked like an apartment of sorts on the inside. There were a few pieces of furniture laying around. A sofa, a desk with a chair, a window on the opposite side and somebody standing there looking out and over the main plaza.

Cat narrowed her eyes.

“I’m sure you’re wondering why the two of you are here. Originally I was only going to bring him and have you eliminated, but, I decided against it. It would just make more trouble we don’t need.”

“What a fucking welcome.”

Liam scratched at his neck nervously. “Excuse me- please tell me- us why we’re here then. You’re not going to torture us are you?”

The man standing across from them turned. He had a tall and sturdy frame, but he was old. His hair was snow white and so was his beard, and he had a pair of sad, tired and cold grey eyes. Something about him seemed familiar to the vault-dweller, though he couldn’t place what it was.

“No, I’m not. I wouldn’t dream of it. You’re Liam McPhearson, aren’t you? You worked for Vault-tec as one of the engineers in charge of overseeing the construction of the vaults.” He asked, arms behind his back casually.

The words stung. Liam took a small step back, alarmed at what this man knew about him. How could he have known? Was there an existing record somewhere? Was he going to blame him for all those people dying? Blame him for all of the ones stuck in the other vaults as experiments and THEIR awful fates?

“H-How do you know that,”

Cat looked back and forth between the two, clueless. “Huh? What’s this old coot talking about?”

The old man smiled and snorted. “You never would talk about it very much, but I do know a little.”

Liam blinked. What did he mean? His heart raced in his chest and his breaths were short and quick. “Tell me who you are- this isn’t funny.” The past was more than a sensitive topic for him.

The Director sighed and looked down at his shoes, and then back up again. “Hard as it is to believe, somehow we both managed to end up here in this time. Do you realize how…” He steadied himself. “…Dad, I would have never dreamed of this.”

The vault-dweller’s eyes widened as he tried to process this old man’s words. Dad? He couldn’t be his dad. There’d be no way, unless it were-

“It’s me, Neil, remember?”


	19. Day Twenty-Two & Twenty-Three- Illegal and Human

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

“So what do YOU think about all this?”

“Stop jumping on the be- what? I don’t know… It …it’s just all…” Liam pulled off his glasses in frustration and rubbed at his eyes while Cat continued to jump around in the room they’d been given to stay in.

“Surprised they din’t just shoot me.”

“Why would they do that?”

She paused. “C'mon, SUBJECT ‘NUISANCE?’” The hopping continued. “That old man’s probably just being nice.”

“My SON,” The vault dweller corrected rather quickly.

He still couldn’t wrap his head around it. Neil had survived this whole time in another cryo-facility. How did he ever get access to one though? There was no way-

Liam snapped his fingers. “Th-that had to have been it…”

“What?” Cat bounced off onto the floor.

“My wife- well ex-wife remarried and that- that other one- he worked for Cambridge- they had to have had something to protect themselves with- Neil said this place was directly located under the university,” If that was all true, it made sense a lot of the scientists had a hideout for themselves. They must had known too. How many people knew that day would be the end? How many more didn’t?

The thought and realization always weighed heavily on his shoulders. Now was no exception.

Cat rolled her eyes and went over towards the 'viewing port’, they called it. “Well whatever happened you’re here now. Doesn’t matter now anyway.”

“What do you mean it doesn’t matter? It DOES! A-and just what they DO HERE- It’s… it’s-”

“It’s WHAT?”

“Astounding. How they built this and-and the changes in technology and-”

“Sooo does that mean you’d wanna stay?”

Liam felt his heart tear in two. Though that would have been preferable at this point.

He’d been reunited with his son who he thought had perished years ago along with the world. On the other hand, Walker was probably still out there, running around like a headless chicken and looking for him. No… not probably, he would be.

“Yes?? No?? Leaving me hangin’-”

“Will you give me a moment-” He hissed back. He couldn’t think like this.

Cat didn’t speak so soon after. Instead she paced around anxiously. “I dunno about you but I need to get outta here. Can’t be waiting all day for you to make a decision… Besides, don’t those synths creep you out?”

Liam reluctantly looked up towards her. “What about them?”

“You know, with how…well HUMAN they look. It’s gotta be illegal to look that real and act real and everything- I mean- they’re built and programmed like robots, how are they so good at acting like a person?”

“I don’t know- I…” Did Neil know about such things? He had to have. He called himself the Director. He was in charge of this place. Were those synths his doing? All the kidnappings he’d heard about?

The more he thought about it the more his chest felt tight.

“…What’s ‘illegal’ mean anymore in this day and age…” He muttered, shutting his eyes and laying back on the bed he’d been given. “Nothing’s right…There’s too much wrong everywhere. All this, everything that’s happened is just- wrong…”

“Preachin’ to the choir doc. So, plan. You stay here, sweet talk your dear ol’ boy here and I am gettin’ out outta here! Ok? Cya!” Cat gave him a wave before heading straight for the door, only to ram into a synth wearing a dark suit-

“YOU-”

It was the courser from before. She eyed the smaller girl and almost smirked. “I have orders to make sure you stay here.”

“WHAT? WHY?!”

“On the Director’s orders.”

“YOU’RE GONNA BE SORRY-”

Liam sighed to himself as Cat threw a fit at the front door. He had so many questions… He just wasn’t sure he’d be able to get all the answers.


	20. Day Twenty-Four- Mistake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

“You know it’s not every day I get a bunch of people running on through Boston trying to all cram their way in here like a tin of sardines.”

Walker stood there in front of the entrance to the fabled and hidden Railroad with his hands up, several guns trained on him.

“Better yet, even more surprising to see a ghoul here. Don’t get many of you folks coming in. I don’t know many ghouls who get involved with synths and the Institute as it is.”

“PLEASE you have to help- I- I heard you – the Railroad worked to fight against the Institute! If there’s anyone out there then- then-” He stammered, trying not to move.

The woman moved some of her red hair back, “Then what? So you found us. You thought we were just going to take your case like some sort of detective agency?”

“W-well-”

“Not exactly.”

This whole thing was frustrating. “Please, please help me- I need to…I have to find Liam… Please I don’t know who else to turn to,”

Desdemona raised a brow, eyeing Walker for quite some time before giving the signal for her companions to lower their weapons. “Try anything funny and you know what’ll happen.”

Walker’s face instantly lit up as they began to move back into their hiding place. He timidly followed along, holding his hands together and bunching up his shoulders in an automatic attempt to make him seem smaller than he actually was.

Inside the sewer, or whatever it was at this point, orange and yellow lamplight was the first thing to catch his attention. Candles everywhere in all corners, regular electrical lights and lines of power hanging just under a very low ceiling made of old bricks and concrete… This place was so small, a literal hole in the ground. There were boxes upon boxes of stuff, tables, supplies stashed away, people moving around and about with whatever business they had, computers set up on one side, a makeshift medical area on the other… The whole place was a hodgepodge.

Still, all eyes came onto Walker as he made his way through and followed the red-haired woman to a table in the middle with a map spread out over it like some kind of old fashioned war room.

“So, hoping it wasn’t a mistake to walk into here yet?”

Walker bit his lip. “A-A little.”

“Good. But, you did come with some valuable information, considering you’d actually managed to SEE a courser in action and live.”

The ghoul had nearly forgotten he’d spat all that out in a panic upon finding the Railroad’s secret hideout to begin with. “I…I did? OH YES I DID- Well-”

He glanced around. Eyes were still on him and it was making him uncomfortable. In the corner was some guy in a red coat and a funny hat, tossing a dagger up and down and picking at the tip, and glaring at him. Nearby was some…another synth it looked like- no no he’d definitely seen that detective getup before… The name escaped him for now. So he turned his attention back to the apparent-leader of the place.

“Well… when he had come to attack- he looked just like a regular person. You know- just…HUMAN… Like they do nowadays.”

“Those are called Gen-3 synths. They’ve been around for a number of years. However more and more of them it seems are starting to realize that they have free will. To be able to go where they want and do as they please. Sometimes, they tend to escape the grasp of the Institute. We’re out to protect them. Those coursers, like the one you saw, get sent to hunt them down, and occasionally take out people who snoop around too much.”

Walker swallowed nervously. “..He- he just attacked us- he called Liam something. A subject I think but- Liam’s not a synth! He’s human! I know it!”

Desdemona raised a brow. “Do you?”

“Yes I do! The courser took him- in a flash of light they were just GONE- like that! I couldn’t find them anywhere, it was like they had just-”

“Like they had…just teleported-” The realization fell on them a lot heavier than what was expected. “If they had some way to teleport to and from places- that would be-”

“Why nobody’s ever found the damned entrance-” Came a rough voice, apparently from the trench coat-wearing, beat-up synth. “I don’t remember how I got outta there, but that would definitely make sense… even if it were far-fetched,”

The scavenger inhaled a little, somewhat frightened.

“Sorry, Nick Valentine here, I’d say nice to meet you but-”

“Introductions later.” Desdemona shoved some of the objects laying around on the table to clear the map. “Tell me where you were, if you can take a guess. Since the both of you claimed to have seen two kidnappings in progress.”

The two nodded and looked over the map. Nick was more easily able to pinpoint his location, where as Walker could only take a rough guess.

“We’ll have to work with what we have. There’s a possibility any of us or even you two are up next on the list for seeing too much. We’ll have to dispatch some reconnaissance and hope we can come back with something.”

“And then what, can we jump the bastards then?” Another rough and scratchy sounding voice came from behind them, from the beloved mayor.

“Not quite. We need to find out as much as possible before we go jumping down anybody’s throats. Especially a big beast like the Institute. We don’t even know HOW they’re using their technology to get inside. We’ll get working on it down here in the meantime while-”

Walker began to get nervous. “While WHAT??”

“While you lot take some of our people and scout. And wait.”

The other ghoul practically hissed at the idea, but nobody else seemed to object. Nick nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

Walker felt his knees buckle. The last thing he wanted to do was run into more of those white robots with the blank staring faces, shooting mercilessly at them with laser weapons that could turn you into a pile of dust. Not that these coursers were any less scary…

“You three, why don’t you head out and see what you can find? Make some friends.”

“B-But-”

Hancock almost stomped on over to them, gave Walker and Nick a good snort before bulldozing through them and out to another exit leading towards the outside.

Nick shook his head. “…Sorry, he’s kind of… Well you know… I’m sure you know how he feels.”

Walker nodded quickly. “Let’s just go quick…”


	21. Day Twenty-Five- Saint

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

“And here is our Robotics facility, see that machine over there?” Neil pointed towards the center of the round room. It almost felt like an assembly line, with a huge computer coming down from the ceiling and connected to the floor. It’s robotic arm swung around to its next destination very precisely, and obviously mechanically.

“First the body needs to be constructed. Each of these parts of course is made with their own set of specifications-”

The arm reached into these tubes and pulled out what were essentially parts from the human skeletal system. A ribcage, femurs, arms, hands, fingers, pieces of the spine, all of them fitting together like a puzzle.

Liam could barely keep his mouth closed the entire time. Neil led him along as the eye of the machine checked the body for any error. Once it passed the quality check, it was lifted into the next area where the machine extended these almost-knitting-needle-like devices and began to ‘sew’ the muscle onto the frame.

“This is…unbelievable- how did you develop anything like this-”

Neil smiled a tired smile. “And to think I haven’t even shown you all the Institute is capable of. These synths are what we’ve been focusing on as of late, so I thought to show you these first. …I don’t know if you’ve heard all that nonsense going around up there…” The eye examined the body again, and then moved it to the next station.

“Nonsense? Like what?” Liam glanced over and up to his son, unable to really tear his eyes away from the construction.

“Well, things like synths having souls and possessing free will, you know, minds of their own. The ability to be their own people.” Two larger needles came out of the machine again and were stuck into various points in the body, jolting it with electricity. The muscles began to twitch, quite alive in a sense. Liam wasn’t too sure. Whatever was happening, the muscle tissue slowly began to fade into this brighter red color, suggestion blood circulation. Was there any though??

“What do you mean?”

“There’s an organization out there, this, Railroad I think they call themselves. They’re some liberation group, claiming they need to free synths from out control. There isn’t any control being had as though they were slaves, as you can well see. We create them, and like any…robot if you will, they were designed and built to specifically follow human input. They are not people. They’re our creations.”

The machine lifted up the synth body for one final point in the assembly line. In the middle was a pool of this pink-ish, red liquid.

“What is that?”

“You’ll see.”

The body was dipped into it and held there, and for a few seconds nothing happened. Liam barely realized he was holding his breath until he gasped as a body rose from the concoction. It had skin, and- well it had skin. Eyes, possibly organs. No hair to speak of quite yet (maybe that stage was later.) If anyone else had looked and hid the backdrop of the Institute away, they might very well say they were looking at a real human being.

On cue, the newly formed man slowly walked out of the pool and down a marked path towards a small door being guarded by a synth. The word PROCESSING glowed right above it. “Please step this way.”

“Where…where am I?”

“All will be explained soon, please step this way for further processing.”

Liam suddenly felt…something. He couldn’t really describe it though.

“See? We can make them quickly now. You should have seen how it was before.” Neil said, sounding very light-hearted about it all. “What do you think?”

“It’s…”

What could he say? What SHOULD he say? That the whole process was impressive and amazing? Because it was. But whatever walked out of that pool. Liam saw its eyes. HIS eyes. That man, who was still a synth. Something was…ALIVE in there, but he knew he could never prove it.

As wonderful as this all was on a scientific level, for the first time in his life, it felt…

Wrong.

“It’s…sure something, son.”

Neil’s expression faltered a little. “…You don’t like it do you?”

“What?- No no I think it’s absolutely brilliant! T-To think we’ve come all this way in- in what, two hundred or so years-”

The Director didn’t respond and let Liam flail around verbally for a little bit. “…Ah well, there are many other areas of the Institute to look at. This was only the beginning, let’s leave them to their work here.”

Liam swallowed and tried to intervene again in the conversation but he found that he couldn’t. Instead, he followed Neil quietly, looking back as another synth- another near-human- crawled out of the pool.

Neil was no saint, Liam knew that. But that wasn’t the problem.

It was those synths.


	22. Day Twenty-Six- Loser

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

“You can’t keep me in here FOREVER you know,” Cat kicked the door with a boot in the monitor’s view before continuing to pace around aimlessly.

Liam rubbed the bridge of his nose as Neil watched the screen. “Can you just let her go? She’s of no use to you.”

“I was thinking about it. But she’s seen quite a lot already.”

“Believe you me, you don’t want her locked up in a place like this. I’ve only met her once before and she’s…strange- never answered any of my questions- rude- impatient-”

“We’ve seen her. With the ghoul.”

“Ghoul” The vault-dweller turned to Neil, raising a brow. “…Wait a minute you- you wouldn’t happen to be referring to-”

“The one in the dark coat- yes. He seemed to have been looking for you as well, though we haven’t been able to determine WHY exactly.”

The strange ghoul with the captain’s hat… Cat had been looking for him, but the Captain-ghoul had been looking for Liam, for some reason.

“…Either way it’s not right to just imprison someone in here…”

Neil sighed loudly and rolled his eyes. “…I suppose she doesn’t know where this is exactly, right? Not like it would matter. There’s no way to get in here from the outside.”

“I know, which was why I suggested…”

The Director bit his lip. “Perhaps then. What about you though?”

Liam froze, hoping the conversation wouldn’t get thrown over to him. But it did. “Ah- well…”

“Do you need more time to…think about it?” Why his father had to think about ANYTHING when he could have safety and food and a clean living environment, and family, for the rest of his life was beyond Neil. It should have been an easy decision to make. “Or, well you do have friends up on the surface don’t you?”

“I-” Liam glanced over at Neil only briefly, unsure of just how much his son really knew about what he’d been doing in his new life outside of being stuck in a cryo-pod. “…Can’t we bring others here? We should be helping those up there in the Commonwealth if at all possible instead of hiding away down here-”

“A sentiment I completely agree with. And we will, in time. For now, those savages up there hardly understand what the Institute is about, choosing instead to spread their fear mongering wherever they go. Though I suppose that much cannot be helped. It’s within human nature to be afraid of things one doesn’t understand. But there will come a day when they’ll finally realize that we bring good for all of mankind. That we have the ability to rebuild even better than before. Imagine, bringing the entire world back…”

“Y-yes… Of course, I just… Couldn’t…”

“If you mean to bring your friend here, which, I believe is also a ghoul, I’m afraid I cannot permit that. There would be too much exposure to radiation. Not that we aren’t always exposed to a bit of it down here as well…but nowhere NEAR as much as up there. To bring even you into here, took a great amount of convincing. As for the other?”

Cat continued to kick the door on screen.

“Let’s just call her an unfortunate by-product. I’ll see about releasing her.” The more Neil looked at the screen the more he wanted her gone. She was annoying.

________

“YOU CAN’T…KEEP THIS UP FOREVER…” A solid thirty minutes had gone by and still no one had opened the door. Cat huffed and puffed but ultimately was out of breath, so she sat down heavily against the wall.

“Buncha damned four-eyed LOOOOSERRRRS around here…” She grumbled.

The silent droning of the room was maddening. And all this metal, and white everything- it was so boring.

The door hissed open suddenly and a synth guard stepped inside, immediately blocking her way out. “Please follow me, you have been released by the Director. You are not to interfere with the Institute’s operations or return to this place ever again.”

“Like I even COULD. About damn time.” Cat stood up and followed the synth out and back to the first room. The teleporter room.

“Please step in the center-”

“YEAH YEAH CHROME-DOME I GOT IT. Where’s the other guy? He staying? Fuckin’ traitor.”

The synth didn’t answer, punched in a few buttons and in a flash of blue light, the girl was gone, with the Director thanking God or whoever was still out there for that much.

Wherever Cat landed after a series of flashes and loud noises, however, even she couldn’t figure it out right away. It was dark, it smelled real bad, but the air was moving. It had to have been outside somewhere.

“…Wha-” She opened one eye. “OH- THINK THAT’S REAL FUNNY HUH-”

She climbed out of the open dumpster, pulled off her jacket and shook it out. “Stupid-” A bright light suddenly blinded her. “Not again-” Not from a teleporter beam however.

“Halt civilian.”

When she opened them again, three figures in power armor stood in front of her, pointing their guns in her direction.

“What NOW? LISTEN I’ve had a pretty shit day and I don’t know WHERE I AM, and I SWEAR if you’re here to start trouble then you-”

“We were patrolling the area and we encountered a strange bright flash of some sort. And here you are.”

“SO?”

“What do you think?” One of the others turned to their companions. “I say we take her in.”

“Agreed.”

Without very much conversation, they boxed the girl in and one of them made a grab for her.

“HEY LET GO OH FOR GOD’S SAKE-”

“We’ve every reason to believe you are somehow involved with the Institute, due to recent sightings of this same blue light in synth-ridden areas.”

Cat paused in her struggling. “OH the INSTITUTE, fancy that, I just got outta there. I know where it is.”

That didn’t stop them from moving like she had hoped it would. “It’s true! I do!! Ease up on the grip there gee wiz-”

“Then you will have plenty of time to tell the Elder all about it, and where we may locate it. If you’re lying though-”

“I’m not LYING,” She hissed back.

“We’d better hurry on back. Her stench is coming through my suit…” One of them muttered through the radio.


	23. Day Twenty-Seven & Twenty-Eight- Yellow and Award

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

Despite the sun created a rather lovely orange and yellow sky, the Captain had no time to take in the scenery. With him he carried an old radio, listening to it closely as it beeped progressively faster the farther he traveled in whatever particular direction it decided to go in.

Today it had been beeping quicker than it usually did, meaning Institute activity. He was sure of it. The beeping always pointed him in the right direction of their synths or their coursers.

He continued down a street, the remains of Cambridge’s university looming in the distance, almost ominously.

The beeps always were plentiful here. As he approached, the radio began to fizz and go haywire.

Something was happening, or about to happen. So he ducked into a nearby shop that held a good view of the school, and waited.

__________

“This Pip-boy and this holotape I’ve provided will be able to send a transmission for us to teleport you back into the Institute should you choose to return. …Dad are you… are you sure you have to go back out there? What could you possibly need? I could send somebody for you if you have things you need to collect or-”

“No- no need, Neil. Don’t worry. There are just some…other things I need to…to tend to first. B-besides, I need to think about all this- I mean- you don’t just get used to living in the wastelands above and expect to transition nicely into a lovely place like this do you?” Liam was speaking out of sheer nervousness now and desperately trying to hide it.

Neil furrowed his brows in confusion. “The transition should be technically very EASY considering you and I are not used to such living conditions-

“Yes yes I know- don’t worry- I’ll be back! I promise!”

A sparkle of hope danced in the old man’s eyes, before it faded. He’d heard those words a lot as a kid. ‘I promise.’ Liam said them a lot. And he did truly mean well by it, but, Neil knew better than to take him at his word so heavily.

His gut churned and twisted. Something gave him a bad feeling. The feeling that screamed Liam wasn’t planning on coming back.

…How could he deny him that though? His own father? He could make his own decisions. He was an adult. However, whether or not he knew what was GOOD for him…

“I’ll be all right Neil, really.”

The Director cleared his throat. “Yes of course. Well…good luck then.”

Liam stepped onto the teleporter and nodded, offered a wave and then was gone in a flash of blue, blinding light.

__________

A beam shot out of the sky in an instant, striking the ground right in front of the university. The light reflected off the ghoul’s goggles as he watched a person emerge from the spot where there very well should have NOT been one.

It was HIM. The tiny vault-dweller, unharmed and whole, and alive most importantly. Now would be his chance.

The Captain shut off the radio, putting it down gently as he kept to the shadows. Liam wasn’t paying attention. He could grab him now without having to worry.

The scientist on the other hand, sighed to himself, taking in a big breath of fresh air. He was free. And in familiar territory to boot.

“Hm I should have some kind of award after THAT venture…”

He could very well be the ONLY person to ever emerge, ALIVE, from the dreaded Institute. He escaped the ‘boogeyman’s’ cold metallic clutches and lived to see the surface world another day.

Slowly he turned to face the ruined main college campus building. The sight of it saddened him for many reasons, but he couldn’t focus on it now. His shoulders fell as he took his first step- Only to be immediately swept off his feet and thrown over a shoulder like a sack of flour.

“WHAT- HEY!-”

The Captain huffed and darted down the street, not being all that careful about where he was going. Where WAS he going??

“ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?! PUT ME DOWN!- MY GLASSES!” They slipped right off Liam’s face and landed on the pavement, and they didn’t even stop to go back and get them.


	24. Day Twenty-Nine- Railroad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble's a brewin' in the Commonwealth, but when is that ever new? Catrene's leading the charge, some of the time, along with a host of other characters both original and canon in this short run of the main campaign, with some liberties taken here and there to change it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to take on a writing prompt challenge with a friend for the month of August. The goal was to write SOMETHING every single day for a new prompt. I decided to add to the challenge and try to make some kind of cohesive story with whatever random topics were drawn for the day, and I think it's gone along pretty well! (So far this is going to surpass all the days in August so I'll try to keep writing until the story's over entirely.)
> 
> For the most part this is my characters' play-through for Fallout 4, so lots of seemingly random shenanigans at first until I start linking it up later, only because that's when I actually started getting better story ideas.
> 
> No pairings here. Just a lot of character relations with one another and such since I'm such a diehard for that sort of development.

“So…so how do you two know about the Railroad?”

“Shut it Snow-White.” The mayor-ghoul growled.

Walker shrunk back out of reflex, retreating further into his bundled up white scarf. “D-don’t you talk to me like that- we’re supposed to…to be working together!”

Nick scowled at Hancock, who had refused to look at either of them the entire time they’d been out scouting around different locations. So far there was no sign of Cat, OR Liam for that matter. “Give it a rest… acting like that’s not gonna get us anywhere.”

Hancock didn’t answer him. Not even with his usual sharp HMPH. Instead, he kept his focus on the street and remained relatively silent, shotgun aimed further down the road.

The synth sighed. “…You’ll hafta forgive him. He’s a bit… We’re a bit-”

“On edge? Don’t think I’m not, also.” Walker swallowed the lump in his throat as his gaze drifted back towards the outside of the remnants of an old house they were using to take refuge in. It was their temporary headquarters while investigating near the northern river surrounding Boston. “…If Liam’s not OK and the Institute did something, or anything to him I’ll…” He couldn’t say it. His hands were shaking he was so mad.

Nick sucked his teeth. An odd sound for a synth to make, one would think. “M’ sure they’re fine,” He didn’t really know that. And it was a little hard to believe.

“Got something,” Hancock announced, lowering himself just a little bit.

They all frantically looked around for any enemy synths coming their way, but there were none. Instead all they saw was somebody running from a distance.

Walker was the first to tear out of there and run after it.

“HEY WHERE ARE YOU GOING-” Nick was second. Hancock was surprised they jumped up quicker than he did, but gave chase, taking care to look behind them just in case.

“STOP!” The scavenger went as quick as his long legs could propel him. He knew that blue coat. And he DEFINITELY knew who that blue-coat was CARRYING.

Liam had NO idea where Walker had come from, but he was glad to see him. “WALKER GET HIM TO LET GO!- PUT ME DOWN!” As much as he kicked however, the Captain seemed rather unaffected by it and kept on going.

Walker, due to his height however, somehow caught up and made a leap for them, grabbing hold of one of the vault-dwellers hand and yanking him back hard, enough to cause the much shorter ghoul to lose his balance. Liam came flying out of his grip and crashed into Walker, knocking them both to the ground.

The Captain hissed under his gas mask and whirled around to jumpback at them, but a shotgun blast at his feet stopped him.

“Don’t MOVE, asshole.” Hancock stated, rather loudly. Nick came after him, staring at the shrimpy ghoul with the blue uniform coat and captain’s hat.

“Who the hell-? Wait a minute- I know you-” Not that he knew the Captain personally. But he looked awfully familiar.

“This that asshole Cat’s been lookin’ for.” Hancock muttered under his breath. He could hardly believe it. At times he thought she WAS crazy whenever she told him she was looking for some weirdo in a costume (small world.) But there he was, right in front of them, kidnapping someone they were looking for. “Alright, better ‘fess up right now. You workin’ for the Institute?”

The Captain stared in their direction but said nothing.

“Ain’t even sure he’s really looking at us,” Nick said slowly, daring to look over his shoulder at the sudden far-off hum in the air.

A Vertibird was on the horizon, and it was coming towards them fast.

“…Uh- Hey- Hancock-”

“WHERE’S CAT? You a SYNTH?” Hancock wasn’t one to throw accusations like that blindly, but the timing of this was all too weird. When Nick’s good hand slapped him on the shoulder, he looked back, “WHAT??”

The aircraft quickly sped past them and made a large turn, coming back.

“Shit that thing’s LOOKING AT US- FIND SOME COVER-” Nick yanked Hancock along as Walker picked up Liam and the two groups scrambled like a pack of cats.

Their feet started pounding against he pavement to the noise of bullets hitting the street right behind them. The mayor and detective found a ditch to hide in while Walker took off in another direction entirely, heading for the hills so to speak.

“Only that Brotherhood of Steel fly those stupid things, what’s it DOIN’ here?” Hancock didn’t dare stand up to look to see where the Vertibird was NOW. Even if they could still hear it.

Nick shook his head, “I don’t know. Clearing out the riff-raff maybe.”

The sound of the aircraft started to change, like it was getting lower and lower to the ground. Like it was slowing down??

The two peeked out from their hiding place. Those were Brotherhood soldiers all right. At least three of them got out of the copter and looked around, big guns in hand. But out from behind them came this tiny girl pushing one of the walking-suits out of her way-

“Cat?” It didn’t matter if they were Brotherhood, or synths or mutants or feral ghouls, Hancock stepped out of the ditch before Nick could grab him.

“Hey- HEY!-” The synth soon went after him.

“YOU- HALT-STOP RIGHT THERE OR WE’LL SHOOT-”

“NO NO DON’T SHOOT-”

“HEY YOU GUYS FUCKIN’ COOL YOUR JETS, JESUS CHRIST-” Cat gave one of the soldiers’ knees a kick, that much doing nothing at all. “THERE you guys are, we’ve been looking all over for you! I told them not to shoot but they said you two were just some ghoul and some synth anyway-” Before Cat could continue mouthing off, Nick pulled her away from the soldiers and over towards their side.

“Why’re they here, what- WHY are you with them?” He asked, not taking his eyes off the guns trained at them.

“They want a fucking fight I’ll GIVE ‘EM a fight-” Hancock was rearing to go.

“Don’t-”

“Best stand down ghoul, or you’ll be nothing more than a splatter on the wall.”

“I’d like to SEE YOU TRY-”

Nick ran his mangled metal hand down his face lightly. “Ugh… look, we need to get out of here, thank your…weird choice in friends for finding you and let’s get out of here-”

One of the soldiers stepped forward. “YOU are not going anywhere. You’re coming with us, for questioning on orders of the Elder.”

The detective eyed Cat. “…What did you do…”

“…What? I got them to help me find you guys. What’s it look like?”

As they were herded back onto the aircraft, Nick gave the area a quick scan one more time. He had no idea where Walker had run off to with the other guy. And he had no idea where the Captain had darted off to either. Not like it mattered anyway.

“For God’s sake…” He pulled his hat down over his eyes and used his own body as a blockade between Cat, Hancock, and the other Brotherhood members. The last thing he needed was the mayor getting testy and throwing a punch.


End file.
